Washing machine



. May as 1926. "1,584,890

A. H. PETERS WASHING MACHINE Filed Sept 6, 1921 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 A. H. PETERS WASHING MACHINE Filed Sept. 6, 1921 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 May 18 :M :5 W :5 i: C 32 i.

WM 3 u. r 21 1,584,890 A. H. PETERS WASHING MACHINE Filed Sept. 6, 1921 I 4 Sheets-Sheet 5 May 18 May 18 1926. 1,584,80

V A. H. PETERS WASHING MACHINE Filed Sept. 6, 1921 I is 77/0817, P5 rae s Patented May 18, 1926. 1

UNITED. STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ARTHUR H. PETERS, OF FORT WAYNE, INDIANA, ASSIGNOR TO HORTON MANUFAC- TUBING COMPANY, A CORPORATION OF INDIANA.

WASHING MACHINE.

In washing machines of the plunger type it is necessary or usual for the plunger to rotate a part of a revolution at each reciprocation thereof. Ordinarily this rotation is It is an object of this invention to provide a mechanism which shall reciprocate the.

plunger and give a small fraction of a revolution to it at each stroke. It is a further object of this invention to produce a machine which shall be relatively inexpensive to manufacture but positive and dependable in the action it produces.

It is a further object of this invention to provide a friction clutch in the drive for the B plunger and to so control the clutch that it shall produce rotation of the plunger shaft only during the up stroke thereof.

'It' is a further object of this invention to provide a link movement for reciprocating the plunger shaft and to make use of the fact that the link will not remain parallel to the shaft for producing the desired rotative effect. Y

It is a further object of this invention to provide a reduction gear whereby the comparatively slow motion of the plunger may be obtained from an electric motor, and to K arrange this reduction gear so that it will be sufficiently compact to be readily housed un- 5 der the tub of the washing machine.

Other and further important objects of this invention will be apparent from the disclosures in the drawings and specification.

The invention (in a preferred form) is il- 4 lustrated in the drawings and hereinafter more fully described.

On the drawings: t Figure 1 is a top plan view of the washing machine.

Figure 2 is a side elevation thereof. Figure 3 is a bottom plan view.

' Figure 4 is a vertical central section.

Figure 5 is a view partly in section of a detail of'the driving mechanism.

Figure 6 is a section upon the line 66 of Fi ure 5.

igure 7 is a section upon the line.7 7 of Figure 5. I

Figure 8 is a section upon the line 8 -8 of Figure 1.

Figure 9 is a top plan view of the gear housing and its contents. It is substantially the same as a section upon the line 99 of Figure 4.

Figure 10 is a section upon the line 1010 of Figure 9. j

- Figure 11 is a section through the manual clutch. n I

. As shown on the drawings:

The washing machine includes a tub 1 mounted upon legs 2 and containing a. spider 3 for supporting the vacuum cups 4. These vacuum cups are each supported at the end of one arm of the spider by means of a sleeve 5 containing a spring 6 which enables the spider to travel downward and the vacuum cups to remain stationary when such relative movement between the two is necessary. The plunger, consisting of the spider 3 and the vacuum cups 4, is mounted u on the upper end of a plunger shaft 7. is shaft is guided in its vertical movement by a stand ard 8 secured to the floor of the tub and provided at its upper and lower ends with packings 9 and 10.

At the lower end of the shaft is a collar 11 pinned thereto. A clutch member 12 is also pinned to the shaft 7 at a considerable distance above the collar 11. The clutch member 13 adapted to cooperate-with the clutch member 12 is loosely mounted upon the shaft immediately below the member 12. Each of the two clutch members is provided with a flange, the adjacent surfaces of the two flanges being conical in shape to afford a good friction grip between the two when the clutch member 13 is forced toward the clutch member 12. The clutch member 13 has a hub 14 surrounding the shaft 7, and there is a sleeve '15 loosely mounted upon the shaft 7 between the hub 14 and the collar 11."

The frame 20 which supports the bottom of the tub also supports a motor 21 which drives a belt 22 which supplies power to the pulley 23. This pulley 1s loosely mounted upon a shaft 24 to which is keyed a friction member 25. Another friction member 26 upon the opposite face of the pulley is spring-pressed toward the pulley and presses the pulley toward the friction member 25. A nut 27 serves to adjust the pressure by which this friction is controlled. The shaft 24 leads into the gear casing 28 and is supported in bearings 29 therein.

The ar casing 28 is supported by and spaced rom the bottom of the tub by means of a filler block 30. The gear case'a-lso affords bearings .for a shaft 31- carrying a worm wheel 32 and a gear wheel '33." The worm wheel 32 is driven by a worm 34 secured uopn the shaft 24 and a thrust bearing 35 is provided to take the thrust from is pivoted to the gear casing 28 at the point 42. The other, arm 43 of this bell-crank lever is connected by a link 44 to an arm 45 upon the vertical rock shaft 46, which extends to the upper edge of the tub and is there supplied with an operating handle 47.

I, The face of the sleeve 38 nearest the end of the shaft 36 is supplied with teeth 48 which cooperate with teeth 49 on a collar 50 keyed to the shaft 51 in alignment with the shaft 36. The other end of the shaft 51 is keyed.

to a crank 52. This crank ends in a wrist pin 53 which travels in a slot 54 which is part of a lever 55. One end of this lever 1s pivoted at 56 to one of the legs 2 of the machine. The other end of the lever is pivoted at 57 to the link 58. The link 58 is bifurcated. at each end, the lower end straddling the lever and the upper end straddling the sleeve 15.

The pivot pin 57 goes through the lever 55 "and through both bifurcations of the lower end of the link 58. This pivot pin is provided with a pivot pin is a was er 60, the edge of which enters this groove. The washer is secured to the link 58 by a screw 61. It is obvious that an means of fastening the pivot pin 57 in p ace could be used but this arrangement is preferred because of its added convenience.

The two members of the upper bifurcation of the link 58 are shown in section in- Figure 6 at 58'. They contact with two ears 62 formed upon the sleeve 15. The ears contain screw threaded tapered holes into which the screw threaded tapered studs 63 are inserted. Each of these studs has a squared outer portion as shown at 64 to afford a good grip for a tool when inserting or removing the studs, or adjusting the tension of them. The portions of the studs which go through the bifurcations 58 are round to permit the link to rotate upon them.

One of the bifurcations of the upper part of the link 58 is extended upward and forms oove 59 and beside the ms-aeeo a head 65 which extends into the hollow of the clutch member 13. This clutch member is provided with two pins 66, one on each side of the head. There is a little lost motion between the head 65 and the pins 66, as illustrated in Figure 5.

A switch 95 mounted near the top of the tub affords a convenient way for controlling the stopping and starting of the motor 21. Assummg t e motor to be started, the operator puts the handle 47 in a position which will cause the clutch teeth 48 and 49 to engage. The shaft 51 then rotates, causing the lever 55 to move about the pivot 56. The oscillation of this lever is assisted by the spring 97 which balances the Weight of the lever, the shaft 7, and the plunger carried thereby.

As the lever oscillates, upon its down stroke, it causes the link 58 to pull down upon the sleeve 15. This will cause the sleeve 15 to exert a thrust against the collar 11 and pull the shaft 7 and the plunger carried thereby downward. The parts will move from the position illustrated in full lines in Figure '4 to thatillustrated in dotted lines in this figure. It will be noted that as this down stroke continues the link 58 which at first slopes downwardly and to the right will first become vertical and then slope downwardly and to the left, its extreme left hand slope being reached when the pivot in 57 is at the same height as the pivot 56.

n the design of the machine as illustrated the lever oes beyond this position and the link 58 wi 1 therefore again slope downward and to the right. Its final sloping to the right is however less than that at the beginning of the down stroke. Upon the up stroke of the lever the changes in slope of the link 58 will occur in the reverse order. During the up stroke the thrust of the link 58 against the sleeve 15 will make it bear against the hub 14 of the clutch member 13 and thrust this clutch member against the clutch member 12, causing -the conical surfaces of these two clutch members to securely bind against one another. The clutch member 12 being keyed to the shaft 7 any rotation of the clutch member 13 will be communicated to the 'shaft 7 during the up, stroke.

The changesin slope of the link 58 are illustrated in Figure 5, in which in full lines is shown the position corresponding to the uppermost POSltlOIlOf the lever 55, and in dotted lines is shown the position corresponding to the pivot in 57 being at the same level as the pin 56. twill be observed that the motion of the link 58 from one of these positions to the other is more than suflicient to overcome the lost motion between the head 65 and the 1 pins 66. It will therefore cause the pins 66 to move from the position illustrated in full lines in Figure 5 to that illustrated in dotted lines there,-or the reverse. The motion of ,the link 58 during the travel of the pin 57 from the position at the same height as the pivot 56 to the lowest position is not suflicient to overcome the lost motion and therefore this partof the stroke cannot cause any rotation of the shaft 7. It is however obvious that this is a matter of proportion of parts and if desired the machine can be so designed that rotation may take place at each end of the stroke.

Upon the down stroke of the lever the sleeve 15 does not exert any pressure against the hub 14 but exerts its pressure against the collar 11. Consequently there is no force tending to hold the clutch member 13 against the clutch member 12 and gravity will cause the clutch member 13'to depart from the clutch member 12. If desired, a positive connection may be made whereby the downward motion of the sleeve 15 will pull the clutch member 13 awayfrom the clutch member 12, but such a construction is not necessary. The change in pressure of the sleeve 15 against the hub 14 is ordinarily suflicient to change the clutch from binding to non-binding condition. The. amount of travel of the sleeve 15 relative to the shaft 7, to accomplish this is too small to be illustrated in the drawings. If it is desired to make this travel larger it may be accom plished by making either the hub 14 or the sleeve 15 shorter than illustrated.

It is evident from the foregoing that the clutch member 13 rotates both upon the up stroke and upon the down stroke of the lever 55, but that during the up stroke this member is clutched to the shaft 7, while during the down stroke it is not so clutched. Consequently the shaft 7 isrotated during the up stroke only and not rotated during the down stroke. As a consequence the shaft 7 will rotate in a step by step fashion during the whole of the time that the machine operates, there being one step in rotation for each up stroke of the plunger. It is also apparent that'the fraction of a turn made ateach step in the rotation is very small.v Consequently, the plunger oscillates up and down and rotates very slowly, with the result that the clothes are thoroughly agitated in the water and the point of application ofthe agitation is slowly changed. The clothes are therefore very thoroughly and com-.

pletely washed by this movement and yet all danger of twisting or tearing the clothes is avoided, and there is practically no tendency to rotate the clothes in the tub.

The stopping and starting of the washing machine may be controlled by the handle 4 which clutches or unclutches the shaft 51 from the constantly rotatin shaft 36. The machine as a whole may by shutting off the power from the motor by means of the switch 95.

I am aware that various details of construction' may. be varied through a wide range without departing from the principles of this invention, and I therefore do not purpose limiting the patent granted otherwise than necessitated by'the prior art.-

I claim as my invention:

1. In a drive for a washing machine of the plunger type, a pivoted lever, power means for oscillating the same, afiplunger also be controlled shaft, a sleeve slidable thereon, a link confor oscillating the same, a plunger shaft, a

sleeve thereon,"a link connecting one end of said lever to said sleeve, an abutment secured to said shaft cooperating with said sleeve to move said shaft ongitudinally during motion of said lever in one direction, a

clutch member secured to said shaft, a clutch member between the first named clutch'member and said sleeve cooperating with the sleeve to move the shaft longitudinally in the opposite direction during the motion of the lever in its opposite direction, and means whereby said second clutch member is rotated by the angular motion of said link.-

In testimony whereof I have hereunto subscribed my name.

ARTHUR H. PETERS. 

